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Thomas Paine Study Centre in the Top 10%

The rhp designed Thomas Paine Study Centre (TPSC) provides teaching and exhibition space for the University of East Anglia. We are delighted that an exhaustive two year post occupancy evaluation has now been completed and in relation to occupant satisfaction found "the building sits easily within the top 10% of the hundreds of buildings surveyed. TPSC now scores even more highly than the Elizabeth Fry Building, which was, when originally surveyed, one of the most well liked buildings by its occupants in the whole database”.

The building is exceptionally well insulated and this is reflected in the annual heat consumption, which has varied from around 20% to 28% of Display Energy Certificate benchmarks for university buildings.

The TPSC is circled in this thermographic image, illustrating just how far we have come in conserving heat compared to that radiating from the 20th century building stock visible in the background.

As a practice we value feedback and the study gives interesting pointers in how even better performance can be achieved in the future. Electric lighting was found to be brighter than specification targets and there was scope to reduce the fan energy needed to push air through the ‘Termodeck’ system by responding better to seasonal and occupancy fluctuations.